Observational study of wind characteristics, wind speed and turbulence profiles during Super Typhoon Mangkhut

On the basis of the wind records from 356-m-high Shenzhen Meteorological Gradient Tower (SZMGT) which is the tallest of its kind in Asia, this paper presents an observational study of wind characteristics during Super Typhoon Mangkhut and aims to enhance the understanding of the boundary layer wind structure of strong typhoons over land. First of all, the raw records are selected for subsequent analysis through quality control concerning flow distortion, thermal stability, stationarity, and spikes. Then wind speed profiles, as well as their associations with upstream terrain conditions, are presented and discussed. Moreover, parameters for describing atmospheric turbulence, involving gust and peak factors, turbulence intensities, turbulence integral length scales, and turbulence ratios, are investigated considering different surface roughness regimes. Furthermore, Gaussianity, power spectral density, and coherence of wind velocities are investigated. The outcome of this study is expected to facilitate the wind-resistant design of high-rise structures in typhoon-prone regions and provide references for typhoon boundary layer simulation.